USA, IL: Off Color Brewing offers preview of its beers

John Laffler announced he was leaving Goose Island Beer Co. last November, one of many high-profile departures from the company in recent months, to start Off Color Brewing with former Two Brothers brewer Dave Bleitner, chicagoist.com reported on March, 18.

Since then the duo has worked furiously to build out their brewhouse near Armitage and Pulaski, laying piping, building the brew works (a 20-barrel system with a bottling/canning line is in place), sorting through the maze of tax and business paperwork (Laffler said they filed their state brewing application and secured River North as their distributor) and waiting for their fermentation tanks to arrive.

What Laffler and Bleitner haven’t done, at least for an extended length, is brew beer. Barring any obstacles, Off Color should be mashing in by the end of April. In the meantime, they’ve brewed off-site with a little help from their friends and offered a sneak preview at Black Rock in Roscoe Village.

Off Color presented guests with "Tonnerre Neige", a collaboration with Three Floyds that’s a cross between a Belgian-style golden ale and Imperial saison; a “half bock” brewed in collaboration with Haymarket Pub & Brewery; and two beers with Metropolitan Brewing — a pink pilsner and a smoked bock.

Overall it was a promising sneak peek at what Laffler and Bleitner have in store once Off Color starts sending its beers out to market.

20 March, 2013